Xinmin Evening News (reporter Xu Yisheng) At the exhibition of "Looking Back - Shanghai Centennial Events" opened today at the Hongqiao Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, nearly 100 figure paintings were displayed. In particular, a set of works "Shanghai Centennial Events" attracted attention, and the entire exhibition was also titled with this.
Picture: Lu Xiaodi's "Pidgin"
"Shanghai Centennial Events" selects a typical location in old Shanghai, with the theme of the story that happened around the location, and in the picture, there are not only citizens, but also a large number of historical figures and important historical events. This set of works is composed of "Pidgin", "Jiuqu Bridge", "Zhang's Weiyuan Garden", "Sixteen Shops", "Four Roads", "Ai Li Garden", "Paramount", "Big World", "Shanghai Liberation" and so on.
The painters of the Figure Painting Garden have been engaged in the creation of Shanghai-themed works for many years, and have a very deep memory and imprint on the changes in Shanghai over the past hundred years. Ye Xiong, convener of the Character Painting Garden, told reporters: "I painted a set of comic strips with old Shanghai themes in the early 1990s, "Midnight", and since then I have always had the desire to continue to create works with old Shanghai themes. In the past, although I painted a group of Chinese paintings "Sixteen Shops", it was weak and did not become a climate. This time, the painters of the Figure Painting Garden worked together, excavated from all angles of Shanghai, and gathered various styles, and the grand scene of Greater Shanghai jumped out at once. Sang Linkang, a painter at the Painting Garden and director of the Shanghai Artists Association's Comic Strip Art Committee, felt the same way. A few years ago, Sang Linkang painted a "Big World" comic strip and collected a lot of information, which is equivalent to a concentrated interpretation of more than three hundred comic strips.
Photo: Sang Linkang's "Big World"
Due to the large number of characters in the picture, the storyline to be expressed, and the large span of time and space, it is relatively difficult for the painter to control, so the effort is also very deep. Zhu Xinlong, a painter at the Painting Garden and former president of the Meishan Painting Academy, said: "After the creation of this set of works was completed, we launched it on the public account, and the response was quite good. Experts and scholars in various fields have placed high hopes on us, and while encouraging, they have also put forward many insightful opinions and suggestions. From the height of Zhenxin Shanghai realistic figure paintings, we put forward higher requirements, which is undoubtedly a great encouragement for the painters of our painting garden. ”
At the Seminar on Works in the Character Painting Garden, experts discussed the current situation of character painting, especially the creation of realistic figure painting, around the content of the exhibition. The famous painter Wang Guanqing said: "Painters should have social responsibilities, and social change and progress are promoted by people. Under the influence of the market economy, there are fewer and fewer figure painters, and even in many exhibitions with the theme of major anniversaries, theme creation and character creation are seriously lacking. In this exhibition, through their works, we see the persistence of these realistic figure painters. ”
Zheng Xinyao, chairman of the Shanghai Artists Association, said: "A group of figure painters in Shanghai who came out of the comic strips, with a sense of dedication and responsibility, continued to study and explore on the road of Chinese painting in their old age, and created a group of works with old Shanghai themes and a number of main themes. They have made breakthroughs in the treatment of art, and combined the treatment methods of Chinese painting on the basis of inheriting tradition, which not only maintains the style of Chinese painting, but also has a very popular appreciation. ”